According to reports making rounds, the Gulf carrier Qatar Airways is planning to re-employ some of its pilots after they were laid off due to the global health crisis and drop in travel demand. The airline sent out a letter to its former Boeing 777 and 787 pilots, encouraging them to rejoin the airline “at the earliest opportunity.”
Sky News reported that, a letter was sent out to laid-off Qatar Airways pilots which said that it is “now looking to restart recruitment activities to adequately resource our Boeing operations,” telling its former crew members, “[we] would like to invite you to rejoin the airline at the earliest opportunity.”
The letteralso stated: A member of the Pilot Recruitment and Selection team will be in touch with you shortly to discuss your current availability …and the rejoining process”.
The invitation, specifically looking for Boeing-trained crew, suggests that this drive is focused on re-building the airline’s Boeing 777 and 787 operations. In terms of fleet numbers, the airline has 81 Boeing 777s and 37 787 Dreamliners. The former type varies between the -200, -300ER. Meanwhile, Qatar operates both the -8 and -9 variants of the 787.
Qatar Airways’ CEO, Mr. Akbar al Baker, confirmed this plan, previously disclosing to Sky News that the airline was hoping to rehire staff that had been let go during the crisis. On this, he said,
“We will give priority to the people that we laid off to come back and again serve at Qatar Airways…We will eventually ramp up everybody’s salary cuts that we have implemented and the salary cuts that we are implementing is not very extreme.”
The airline response to the news: “As Qatar Airways continues to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and its significant impact on the international commercial aviation industry, the airline has steadily rebuilt its global network to 130 destinations, with the reinstatement of many more routes planned over the coming months.
“This has led to a number of opportunities arising within our Boeing fleet operations which are being extended to eligible former Qatar Airways Flight Crew as a priority at this time.
“We will continue to review our operational and resourcing requirements on a regular basis, as market conditions evolve.”